Arizona Action Alert Concerning Common Core

HB 2246 affirms the right of parents to protect their children with regard to testing, and HB 2190 will pull Arizona out of the national Common Core standards and assessments.

Common Core is an experiment destined for failure, a loss of local control, a loss of parental rights, a loss of privacy, with high costs and more.

These bills will begin the process of reclaiming control of education policy making and pushing back against the federal government and special interests.

The Arizona House of Representatives has passed both bills, and last week the Senate Education Committee passed them out of committee by votes of 5-2. Now the full Senate is expected to vote on them any day now.

For far too long, the legislature has abdicated its responsibilities over education policy making. They have left these critical decisions in the hands of the State Board of Education, which has acted as a mere servant of the US Department of Education. That is why Arizona signed on to the national Common Core standards and why the rights of parents have been compromised.

The legislature must stand up to protect children and their parents and get rid of the inferior, gravely flawed national Common Core Standards.

Gov. Ducey is losing his courage. After making election promises last year to get rid of the Common Core, Gov. Ducey now wants to wash his hands of responsibility and leave the matter in the hands of the State Board of Education – the entity that adopted the National Common Core Standards in the first place! He even asked the Board to use the Common Core – not a world-class set of standards – as the starting point! Gov. Ducey is going through the same steps that Gov. Pence of Indiana took in ushering in a rebrand of Common Core.

Take Action:

Call Gov. Ducey (602-542-4331) and tell him to support HB 2246 and HB 2190!

Contact your senator and urge him/her to vote in favor of HB 2246 and HB 2190. The numbers and addresses are at the end of this message. If you do not know who your senator is then click here for their name and contact information.

Please pass this e-alert on to like-minded friends, family, pastor, and acquaintances today, and ask them to pray and take action on this important issue.

Pray: Pray for your senator and Gov. Ducey. May they both do what is right on behalf of Arizona children and encourage others to do the same.

Background on the Common Core

The national Common Core standards are privately owned and developed standards in math and English Language Arts (ELA). They are of low quality and operate as a glass ceiling that locks children into a slowed-down academic progression and fails to prepare them for college.

This is not a matter of debate. Jason Zimba, the chief architect of the Common Core math standards, admitted in testimony that Common Core is:

“Not only not for STEM, it’s also not for selective colleges. For example, for UC Berkeley, whether you are going to be an engineer or not, you’d better have precalculus to get into UC Berkeley.”

Marina Ratner, a world-class mathematician, wrote in the Wall Street Journal:

“Students taught in the way that these standards require would have little chance of being admitted to even an average college and would certainly struggle if they did get in.”

The Common Core English standards are likely even worse. Professor Sandra Stotsky, the only content expert on the Common Core English Validation Committee, refused to sign off on the standards. She criticizes the ELA standards as: